A disabled Army reservist veteran this week described a harrowing attack by a grizzly bear that he survived by playing dead and holding his can of bear spray.
Shayne Patrick Burke, 35, called the grizzly mom's attack last Sunday “the most violent thing he's ever experienced.”
He added in an Instagram post: “I have experienced gunshots, mortar explosions and improvised explosive devices.”
Burke said he was walking through the woods on Grand Teton National Park's Signal Mountain in western Wyoming in an effort to photograph a great gray owl last weekend.
SURPRISE GRIZZLY ATTACK CAUSES MOUNTAIN CLOSURE IN GRAND TETON
A disabled Army reservist veteran was attacked by a grizzly bear last weekend. (Prisma Bildagentur/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
His wife was waiting for him in the parking lot and he was trying to rush back when he had a “really uncomfortable” feeling. He was breaking branches, singing and talking to himself out loud. Here are some things that can help prevent a 'surprise encounter'. 'with a brown bear'”.
Then he noticed a bear cub in front of him. “I knew this was not good,” he wrote, adding: “I unholstered my bear spray and saw the mother bear charging. I stood my ground, screamed and tried to deploy the bear spray, but by the time I did, she already closed the gap”. ”
With little time to think, he decided to lie face down on the ground so that the grizzly bear would attack his back instead of his front and clasped his hands behind his neck to “protect my vitals.”
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He said the bear bit him on the shoulder, legs and buttocks, threw him to the ground and rolled onto his back before attacking his neck to give him a “deadly bite.”
“I still had my hands clasped and my arms protecting my carotid arteries,” he wrote. “I never let go of the can of bear spray. As he bit my hands on the back of my head, at the same time he bit down on the can of bear spray and it exploded in his mouth. This is what saved my life from the initial attack. I heard her I ran away , I looked up and instantly ran in the opposite direction towards a hill.”
As he rushed back to his wife, he texted her “attacked” and applied makeshift tourniquets to her legs.
The man was attacked while hiking on Signal Mountain in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
While they waited for help to arrive, he filmed a video saying goodbye to his loved ones in case the worst happened. But soon a helicopter and an ambulance arrived and took him to a hospital.
“The most important thing that kept me alive during the attack was reading and understanding what to do in the event of a bear attack and being prepared with bear spray,” he wrote. “While I'm not sure if I was able to spray anything on the bear, having it on me and keeping it in my hands while protecting my vitals 100% is the only reason I'm telling my story now.”
He also thanked the “Jenny Lake Rangers who saved my life.”
He also bears no ill will towards the bear, telling rangers that the attack was simply “the wrong place, the wrong time” and that the mother bear was simply defending her cub. Park officials have confirmed that the bear will not be captured or killed, something Burke himself urged.
The man called said the attack was just a case of “wrong place, wrong time” because the grizzly bear was simply trying to defend its cub. (Huseyin Demirci/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“In fact, the second thing I told the park rangers was to please don't kill the bear, she was defending her cub,” he wrote, adding, “I love and respect wildlife.”
“What happened at Signal Mountain was a case of wrong place, wrong time,” he wrote.
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Burke is expected to make a full recovery.
